Seven minutes that'll make you rethink what documentaries can be.
Filmed in Grayson, Oklahoma, Wildcat meditatively combines documentation of a Black rodeo subculture with an abstract portrait of Joseph’s aunt who helped found the event.
Cinematography
Joseph's hazy, golden-hour lensing turns Oklahoma into mythic terrain.
Sound
Soundscape blurs diegetic and non-diegetic—expect ASMR-level texture.
Direction
Personal essay filmmaking at its most assured and least sentimental.
Director
Kahlil Joseph
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Black rodeo circuit remains underdocumented; Joseph's aunt helped found one of few such events in Oklahoma, placing this within a larger reclamation of cowboy mythology from whitewashed history.
Shot in Grayson, a town of roughly 150 people, the film's compression of epic scope into miniature runtime anticipates Joseph's later music video and commercial work.
US
